New York City’s openly gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn once again opted out of her own city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, which, like Boston, bans gays from marching. Instead, she traveled to D.C. and attended the White House reception for Irish-Americans. [NYT]
kevin (not that one)
Hmmm. Let’s see: A. Get all exposed to the elements and obnoxious drunk people and march in a parade that bans people like you….
Or….
B. White House reception where you will likely get to meet Mr. and Mrs. (FABULOUS) Obama.
The choice must have been excruciating.
strumpetwindsock
@kevin (not that one):
I dunno… Another question is which event had the most important work to do, and where could their presence best make a change for the better?
I don’t think she made a bad choice at all.
(though you might have been saying that – couldn’t tell if you were being facetious or not)
Aman
so, anyone know why queers are banned? I am assuming because of the Catholic connection…?
Aman
nevermind, chose to do some research like a motherf*cking genius.
kevin (not that one)
This is the Irish cultural celebration we’re excluded from:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_st_patrick_s_mayhem
Sorry, but even though I have a smidgeon of Irish ethnicity, I find St. Pattys Day, both the religious, Irish, and drinking elements, extremely embarrassing.
I’d rather celebrate Cinco de Mayo or Chinese New Year.
strumpetwindsock
@strumpetwindsock:
Ooops. My mistake. I thought she went to the parade.
Jon B
The way I understand it (and I read the Supreme Court case last year), gays aren’t actually banned from the parade, Gay groups are banned. There’s a huge difference. I’m not sure that I agree with the Supreme Court on this issue, but I certain don’t completely disagree with them. The legal issue at play is whether or not forcing a parade organizer to allow groups to march would infringe upon their first amendment rights because the forced association with the groups would count as speech. We wouldn’t want to allow the Yes-on-8 crowd to have a float in the San Fran gay pride parade, would we? Or, I guess more on point, we wouldn’t want a group (a hypothetical one) called Gays Against Gay Rights… sort of like a gay Jews for Jesus…
Anyway, while I do understand the legal reasoning, I do think the choice on the part of the parade organizers is disgusting.
alan brickman
she’ll do more by shaking the prez hand than getting shouted at… not a hard choice after all…